“This shirt does not have a bellybutton button.”

“Should it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you mean to say, this shirt does not have a bellybutton?”

“Yes, of course I mean to say that. I also mean to say what I said.”

“Of course. Pardon.”

“Of course.”

“To sum up, then?”

“To sum up, then, this shirt has neither bellybutton nor bellybutton button.”

“And this hurts?”

“Aches.”

“How so?”

“For want of it.”

“Of what? Not to put too fine a point on it.”

“Not to put too fine a point on it, a button.”

“For want of a button, then. Or a bellybutton.”

“And a bellybutton, yes.”

“As a ghost aches, perhaps? A limb, that is, perhaps?”

“Yes, as a ghost limb aches, perhaps.”

“Thus beginneth the passage of the flesh, they say. At severance. At birth.”

“Of the flesh, yes, and all things of the flesh, thus, severed, at birth, beginneth the passage.”

“The passage and the passing, thus, yes?”

“Thus, thus, the passage and the passing, thus, as you say, yes, yes.”